Parenting is often lived in the extremes. It’s either great joy or chaotic overwhelm. One moment you’re nailing it and the next you’re losing your cool. I want to help you find your way to the messy middle, to a place of balance. You see, balance is a verb, not a state of being. It is a thing you DO, not a thing you ARE. It’s an action, a process, a series of micro-corrections that we make, each and every day, to keep ourselves feeling centered. We are never truly balanced, we are engaged in the process of balancing.Hello, I’m Dr. Laura Froyen, and this is the Balancing Parenting Podcast, where overwhelmed, stressed-out, and disconnected parents go to find tools, mindset shifts, and practices to help them stop yelling at the people they love and start connecting all delivered with heaping doses of grace and compassion. Join me in conversations that will help you get clear on your goals and values and start showing up in your parenting, your relationships, YOUR LIFE, with open-hearted authenticity and balance.
The Balanced Parent Podcast has been a lifeline for me during the challenging days of the pandemic and all the raw emotions it brought up for my family. As someone on a conscious parenting path, this podcast quickly became my safe space for grace, self-compassion, and tools to align with my values amidst rough moments. I recommend it to all my friends on their parenthood journey and am so grateful for its existence.
One of the best aspects of The Balanced Parent Podcast is its compassionate and respectful approach to parenting. Dr. Laura Froyen is a kind and intelligent therapist who truly wants to help parents and children who are suffering. She provides practical advice in a caring way and has helped many listeners change their parenting style and navigate their triggers with more grace. The podcast is filled with valuable information, concrete suggestions, and resources that can facilitate personal growth for not only parents but also themselves.
There aren't many negative aspects to this podcast, but one potential drawback could be that it may not resonate with every listener. Parenting styles vary greatly, and while Dr. Froyen's approach is compassionate and flexible, it may not align with everyone's beliefs or preferences. Additionally, some episodes may feel repetitive if you've been following the podcast consistently.
In conclusion, The Balanced Parent Podcast has had a significant impact on many individuals' lives by providing guidance, support, and tools for navigating parenthood. Dr. Laura Froyen's compassionate approach creates a safe space for growth and healing while fostering a sense of hope in listeners. Whether you're struggling with postpartum depression or simply looking for ways to become the parent you want to be, this podcast offers valuable insights that can positively shape your parenting journey.
Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
In this heartfelt episode of The Balanced Parent, your host returns from a summer sabbatical to share a deeply personal journey. After taking a break to reconnect with my children and my purpose as a parenting coach and educator, I faced immense challenges, including the diagnosis process for my daughter. During this time, maintaining authenticity on the podcast became a significant struggle, as my family's difficulties were intensely private. Hence, I took a break from work and social media.Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
In this episode, we are joined by Kelly Smith, a yoga and meditation teacher and founder of Yoga For You. Kelly shares her insights into how mindfulness and yoga can help us connect with our authentic selves and cultivate inner joy and power. She encourages us to find our own personal practice, listen to our bodies, and access our most authentic selves.For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
I'm excited to share that my latest podcast episode features a special guest, Dr. Rina Bliss. Dr. Bliss is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and the author of several books, including Rethinking Intelligence: A Radical New Understanding of Our Human Potential.For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Caroline Clauss-Ehlers, an award-winning psychologist, researcher, and professor at Long Island University, Brooklyn, to discuss the power of mindful eating for family connections. If you're looking for practical ways to improve your family's eating habits and deepen your connection with your children, this episode is a must-listen. Join us as we explore the power of mindful eating with Dr. Caroline Clauss-Ehlers and discover how it can transform your family's relationship with food and with each other.For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
I am excited to share with you the latest episode of my podcast, where we explore the topic of nutrition and ADHD in children. As a parenting expert, I always emphasize the importance of a holistic approach to raising our children; this episode is no exception. I had the pleasure of interviewing Momina Salim, a certified Pediatric Functional Medicine Health Coach with extensive experience supporting frustrated parents of children diagnosed or suspected of ADHD. Momina helps parents address the underlying root causes of their child's hyperactivity, inattention, and behavior issues through diet, lifestyle changes, and other holistic interventions.For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
As a parent, I know how challenging it can be to juggle the many responsibilities that come with caring for our children, partners, and ourselves. As you may remember, recently I've been struggling with health issues and burnout, and it has been a really difficult journey. I've come to realize that many other parents are experiencing similar struggles, and it's time we have a compassionate conversation about it. That's why I'm excited to share my latest podcast episode where I speak with Andryanna of The Juggle is Real podcast (where I was a guest recently!) about burnout and how it affects our mental health and relationships with loved ones. We delve into the topic of mom guilt and the pressure we put on ourselves to be perfect parents, often at the expense of our own well-being. If you're looking for more support on these issues, I also offer online courses and group coaching through my BalancingU membership. You'll have access to a community of like-minded parents and resources that can help you find more balance and compassion in your life. Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope our podcast episode can bring you some comfort and support during challenging times. To know more about Andryanna, visit her website andryanna.com and follow her on Instagram @andryannag.For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
This week on The Balanced Parent podcast, we will have a deep-dive discussion into how we can help our children develop crucial skills for building meaningful social connections, like perspective-taking and problem-solving. Miriam Campbell will be joining me in this discussion. She is a mom who uses her experience as a speech therapist, social worker, teacher, and parent to support parents who want to develop their children's social and emotional skills. If you want to consult with Miriam, you can schedule one here and visit her website skillsforconecction.com for more resources. You can also find her on Instagram @skills4connection.For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
When I ask the parents I work with about their long-term goals for their children, kindness is one of the qualities I hear most about, and it's no wonder, right? Most of us have personal experiences where we have been on the receiving end of the kindness (and unkindness) of others, and it makes sense that we hope that our children will put good out into the world. But how is something like "kindness" taught and learned? Well, similar to the idea of "balance" it's not necessarily a thing you "do" but a way of "being" and those things are often taught best through modeling by embodying them ourselves. And that's why for this week's episode on The Balanced Parent podcast, I want to highlight kindness - the science behind it and how to put this into practice in our homes with the hopes of upbringing children with the value of kindness. And to help me in this conversation, I'm so happy to welcome Teresa Ramirez, a Kindness Ambassador for loving parents who want to raise kind children. Through her enlightening videos ( check them out here ) and blog posts her goal is to inspire us to create fun, happy moments with our children through acts of kindness. If you wish to connect with Teresa, you can join her Facebook community Journey in Kindness .For more show notes, visit www.laurafroyen.com/podcast.
Ok, so we've all heard the term "conscious parenting" before, right? We've even talked about it on the show, but out there in the online world I see a LOT of people talking about it in a lot of different ways and I'm not always sure we are talking about the same thing. In my mind there is a difference between respectful, collaborative parenting (which is about HOW you interact with your kids, like the actual practices and things you say and do) and conscious parenting. So what exactly is conscious parenting when you distill it down, and how do you put into practice day-in and day-out in your family? That's what we are digging into this week on the podcast! To learn more from Dr. Shefali, you can visit her website www.drshefali.com, and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.Find more show notes here: laurafroyen.com/podcast
A huge part of my mothering journey has been learning to quiet the fears and outside influences, and seek instead to truly learn with curiosity about my child and myself. The more I learned about the unique child I had been blessed with, the more I was able to see her true needs and trust myself to meet them. I kind of had to figure out how to do this on my own (although the RIE approach helped immensely) and I wished I'd had someone to tell me that I could trust myself and my child, and then tell me HOW to do it, someone like my guest on the today! And to help me in this conversation, I have brought in Dr. Anya Dunham. She is a mom of three young children and a scientist studying how living things relate to one another and interact with their environment. She is the author of Baby Ecology, a book that examines child development research through the unique lens of ecology – and distills it down to building blocks of the nurturing environment that can be easily created in our homes to give babies the support and freedom to sleep well, explore happily, grow into adventurous eaters, and reach their full potential. To get more support and parenting advice, visit www.kidecology.com and follow her on Facebook (Anya Dunham - KidEcology)Find more show notes here: laurafroyen.com/podcast
As my child approaches ten and has started to ask for a phone, it is important that as parents we know how to guide our kids in navigating technology and social media with intention and safety in mind. An important aspect of this is figuring out how to model for our kids the boundaries and relationships with social media that we want them to have. To help me in this conversation, I have brought in Lena Derhally. She is an author and Imago-certified psychotherapist in private practice. She was formerly a clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington School of Medicine, where she mentored medical students, and she is on the advisory board of 1455 Literary Arts. To know more about this topic, follow Lena on Instagram and Facebook. You can also check out her works on www.lenaderhally.com
On this week's episode on The Balanced Parent Podcast, I will be joined by Carol Muleta and we will be chatting about how we can help our children develop self-discipline and resilience. Something that I know we all want for our children but that can be difficult to figure out how to nurture respectfully. Carol Muleta is a Parenting Strategist and Consultant. She created The Parenting 411, a portal where she engages parents and awakens the JOY in their journey with her fresh approach to addressing challenging behavior, building strong family connections, and fostering children's success in school and in life. Carol teaches parents through workshops, webinars, group coaching, a parenting radio show, and a podcast. To help you even more, check out carolmuleta.com and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and get the resources you need. She also has a wonderful podcast called The Parenting 411 that I was recently a guest on, so check that out as well.Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
We are nearing the end of my 30 Days of Play Challenge. And with that, I would like to thank those who have joined. I want you to know that I am proud of everyone who put in the work to know more about their children through play and made the effort to make independent play better. I am also proud of every parent in this community who committed to becoming balanced. And before we end our play challenge, I would like everyone to know that there will be a Wrap-Up Webinar on January 31st at 1 PM Central. If you'd like to join us just CLICK HERE, and I'll make sure you get the link the day before! Alright, now for this week on The Balanced Parent Podcast, we are going to talk about how to enjoy play more, not just with our kids but for ourselves too! We are so focused on parenthood and other responsibilities that sometimes we forget to have fun. And so, to help me in this conversation, I have invited Sarah Dooling. Sarah is a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor. She provides supervision and consultation to clinicians who work with children and maintains a small private practice. She also created the Kinship Club, an online membership community where clinicians can learn and experience comfort, connection, and FUN. As the creator of the Parenting Power Hour, a program that harnesses kid wisdom, she explores the restorative powers of play and offers doses of comfort and kinship to parents navigating life in the trenches. Co-experiencing joy, delight, and curiosity with like-minded & like-hearted kid therapists nourish her in the best way. To connect with Sarah, follow her on Instagram @healwithplay and visit her website www.sarahscottdooling.com.Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
We are now halfway through our 30 Days of Play Challenge. For the past few weeks, we've talked about unstructured, independent play and its wonderful advantages it has for kids. Today, I want to give you a full well-rounded picture of how play can help support your kids, and how you can harness the power of a specific type of play, "structured play" (think games with rules someone else made up), to encourage 4 skills that are key to building resilience. To help me in this conversation, I have brought in Dr. G (Deborah Gilboa, MD). She is a board-certified family physician and Resilience Expert. She works with families and businesses to improve resilience and strengthen mental health. She's currently working with ThinkFun, a games company, and the larger toys and games industry to strengthen kids' mental, emotional and social health through play. To connect with Dr. G, follow her on Instagram @askdoctorg and visit her website www.meshhelps.org.Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
We are now back on The Balanced Parent podcast! As you all know, we focus on our children's play every January. And I would like to invite you to join me in my 30 Days of Play Challenge. As part of this challenge, the episodes on the podcast for this month will be all about PLAY! Yay! To start the month off, I wanted to focus on one of the most common questions I get: How can I get my kids to play more independently? The secret to getting more of the coveted independent play we first have to figure out what's getting in the way currently. The play challenge will help you carefully observe your child and get curious about the things that may be blocking independent play in your own family, and in this episode, we will be digging into the underlying needs children have that need to be met in order for them to get into deeply immersive independent play. To help me in this conversation, I have brought in the genius behind one of my favorite Instagram accounts: Blanca of Whole Child Home. Blanca is a licensed professional counselor with graduate training in clinical psychology who specializes in supporting children's mental and behavioral health. She is also a parent of a toddler and is now pouring all her professional training into something she has always been passionate about—empowering parents to nurture healthy emotional development at home with evidence-based strategies. She founded Whole Child Home to offer parents an online platform with workshops, social media bits, and personalized consults to guide parents and caregivers worldwide.Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
Find more show notes here: www.laurafroyen.com/podcast
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